U.S. President Donald Trump says he has called Russian President Vladimir Putin and begun to arrange a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a critical step toward bringing a possible end to Russia's war on Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he hoped Russia's Vladimir Putin would move forward on ending the war in Ukraine but conceded that the Kremlin leader may not want to make a deal at all, adding this would create a "rough situation" for Putin.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE BILATERAL: President Donald Trump announced yesterday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would hold a bilateral meeting in the coming days. That would be followed by a trilateral meeting with Trump and those two leaders. Trump held a summit with Putin in Alaska on Friday.